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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26321848">The Reckoning</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsareoverrated/pseuds/starsareoverrated'>starsareoverrated</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>EWE, F/M, a bit of mystery, post-war AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:01:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,185</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26321848</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsareoverrated/pseuds/starsareoverrated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The war is long passed and the dust is settled. The graves are filled and so are dead hearts. But there exists a soul, bound by love, and she has a story to tell.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Reckoning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>In the years that  had passed since the second Wizarding War, Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy had often wondered about what it was that had turned Draco into the wizard he paraded around to be. </p>
<p><br/>
It had been a few months short of five years since that opportune day in early May that they suspected something to be truly wrong.</p>
<p><br/>
Though they hardly saw their son for any substantial amount of time per day, they could always catch him at breakfast, sharply dressed as always in shades of soft gray and black with his light hair swept to the side in a decidedly affected move, his eyes diligently moving back and forth as they scanned the morning paper. His eyes glinted with an unnatural depth, the likes of which Narcissa had never seen in Lucius' identical eyes and even less so  in her own. </p>
<p><br/>
An intense gaze, intuitive and intelligent; this was not the boy she had raised. Her little dragon had been the quintessential spoilt brat (she was unashamed of this fact) who had scarcely to snap his fingers before a house-elf would scamper to fulfill his unspoken whims and, if left unsatisfied, the whole manor would be rewarded by his petulant screams as he berated the little creatures just like the future Lord of the manor.</p>
<p><br/>
'Something the matter, mother?' he asked, eyes peeking over the rim of the Daily Prophet.</p>
<p><br/>
Lucius met her eyes briefly before looking down at his own meal of bland soup, which was all he was currently permitted as he was recovering from a nasty bout of Dragon Pox. </p>
<p>'Nothing, my darling,' she said, voice airy with feigned nonchalance. 'But,' she interjected, 'it is the weekend, and wouldn't you rather be going to visit you wife's sister and dear Theo? They've sent enough owls these past few weeks.'</p>
<p>Draco's mouth twitched, but she was familiar enough to know that it was not in amusement. Something sat on his  visage, something unsettling. </p>
<p>'I don't care for Daphne, as you know quite well,' he answered, looking at the watch on his wrist. She had not gifted him with that watch, and as far as she knew, neither had her husband. It was one of those little trinkets that made up the present scenario of the tightly-knit mystery that her son had become. </p>
<p>'And Theo is actually waiting for me at  the office, since that is where I am heading to. Do excuse me, mother. Father,' he nodded at the man in question. Pushing back from his seat, he got up in sure movements-- far from the boy of sixteen that had sat in this very room in front of a terrifying monster-- and was out of the breakfast parlor in seconds.</p>
<p>'Something is amiss with that boy,' Lucius muttered, looking up at her from below a tired brow. 'And I do not know what it is.'<br/>
Narcissa suppressed the tremor that ran through her spine, and told  him, 'He is not a boy anymore. But...he is changed from what he was.'</p>
<p> </p>
<p><br/>
Astoria Malfoy was long departed from the world, but she hadn't started out that way. People rarely start out dead.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><br/>
The woman that entered the parlor after Draco had left looked like Astoria, had the same burnished brown hair and the sharp eyebrows. The shape of her mouth was unchanged and so was the slope of her shoulders, but that was not what caused Narcissa to sit up straight and regard her daughter-in-law with muted alarm.</p>
<p>It was the set of that same mouth, now no longer pursed in a haughty pout but relaxed and cruelly quirked in a full red painted kiss. It was in the sway of her freer hips and the assured meaning in her dark  brown eyes that caught Lucius' stiffened appraisal. <br/>
Astoria had been a lackluster but obedient Pureblood stiff. This was vitality and fresh spring packed in a body that appeared at first glance to be that of Astoria, but which moved with a sensual twist that Draco's wife had never possessed.</p>
<p>This was someone else.</p>
<p>She smiled. A sweep of her heeled leg had her sat in Draco's vacated chair, from where she pulled the basket of cherries towards her and leaned back, unconcerned, as  she watched them both with what was surely insolent amusement.</p>
<p>'Hello, Narcissa,' she greeted gaily, tongue dragging the l's of her words. 'Did you miss me?'</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><br/>
This story does not start here. As Narcissa Malfoy would tell you, it commenced long before the war had even started. She would tell you that she had been looking out for her son, and in her desperate mind, she probably was. </p>
<p>Hermione Granger would inform you that she had never taken kindly to people taking away her choices. She would whisper in your ear (were she a ghost anymore, she would have sung the truth to you in a tragic, translucent form) that she was, and always would be, the great and only love of Draco Malfoy's life and to assume otherwise would have heinous consequences.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p><br/>
'How could you?' Narcissa screamed at Draco as he sat on his bed, eyes trained towards his bare feet. Behind him, also sitting up in bed, was a familiar curly haired Mudblood with her glistening shoulders peeking out from beneath a silken sheet.</p>
<p>'I love her,' he said, voice earnest and emotions simple, 'I love her, so I married her because you wouldn't have let me and would've made me leave her.' He reached a hand behind him to catch the girl's. 'I cannot leave her, so I tied myself to her.'</p>
<p>Identical black markings decorated their wrists, describing the sign of a great and ancient marriage. Furious as she was, Narcissa would have to be the one to make this right.</p>
<p>She would resolve this fiasco. </p>
<p>Pointing her wand at her son and his-- his wife, she fired off two quick stunners and watched dispassionately as they slumped over, still joined at their hands.</p>
<p>She erased her son from the girl's memory. She wiped the filth from  her  son's mind. For good measure, she cursed the young witch too.</p>
<p>They had barely been of legal age.</p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><br/>
The curse came to fruition, and the girl was dead soon after the war. Her son was none the wiser, and the problem was removed. All would be well.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p><br/>
Almost seven years later, and the ghost of that girl stared at her from inside Astoria's body. Speechless, and fumbling for her wand, she could only stare as her husband looked at her and the intruder with a perplexed expression.</p>
<p>'Who are you?'</p>
<p>At least he  was sharp enough to know that what was apparent was not real.</p>
<p>Hermione Granger extended her hand (or was it Astoria's still?) and held it out for a handshake. 'Hermione Malfoy at your service.'</p>
<p>Maybe his multiple stints in Azkaban had loosened his grip on reality, but Lucius grasped the hand and said, perplexed yet, but interested, 'Is it? Well now, this is an unprecedented turn of events. Would you care to explain?'</p>
<p>Narcissa stared at him, mouth slightly agape. Hermione shot her a winning smile, and her host body's dark eyes lightened to a cinnamon shade, her lips morphing into a fuller pair. </p>
<p>'This might take awhile,' she quipped, 'but what you must know, Mr Malfoy, is that I was never really gone. Even though Narcissa took away my last breaths, I was still tied to my husband and he eventually paved the way for my return. He's a real romantic, if you must know.'</p>
<p>'I wasn't aware you had been here in the first place, Miss Gra-- Mrs Malfoy,' he muttered, thoughtfully placing his napkin back on the table.</p>
<p>'Have you completely lost your mind, Lucy?' Narcissa seethed. 'Can't you see she's done something to dear Astoria? To Draco?'</p>
<p>'I found nothing even remotely "dear" about that spastic chit-- she was your pick, not mine  and certainly not Draco's,' he griped, voice seizing the opportunity to exact some autonomy over his more controlling wife. 'I saw the way you two were about, plotting in the corners-- <em>secrets everywhere!'</em></p>
<p>'I haven't kept anything from you,' Narcissa insisted, placing a hand on Lucius' forearm. The latter clenched his teeth.</p>
<p>'Clearly not,' he waved his other hand in Hermione's direction. 'Do feel free to relay your side of the sorry tale anytime now,' he said to the young woman who was watching them, unrestrained glee in her fluid eyes.</p>
<p>'It's not sorry,' she replied quickly, 'most of it is rather hilarious, in fact. I was right under everyone's noses, <em>all</em> this time. Draco and I always have such a laugh over how very gullible you people are.'</p>
<p>Narcissa fumed. 'My son has been keeping things from me? All this time? Since when?'</p>
<p>'Right after your little parting gift killed me after the battle.'</p>
<p>When the current Malfoy matriarch remained silent, Lucius spoke up. 'Clear up a few things for me, if you will.'</p>
<p>'I am willing to tell you every detail of my story, if you would so prefer.'</p>
<p>Shaking his pristine head, he picked up a glass of fruit juice. 'You,' he pointed  at her,' and my son, have been romantically involved, but I can't-- for the <em>life of me</em>-- fathom, when this had first begun. It can't have been anytime after your little session on my drawing room floor. That would've been a right damper.'</p>
<p>'You both married, after-- and this I'm assuming from Cissy's beautiful, murderous eyes-- my wife refused to give you both her blessings. She attempted to separate you two, which clearly did not work out as well as she was thinking because she was supposedly a tad bit late. Have I been giving an acceptable recap?'</p>
<p>'Quite true, so far,' Hermione conceded, sipping her own freshly squeezed orange juice. 'But you missed an important bit about our marriage. You see, we didn't just go up and have our nuptials registered at the Ministry. That news would have reached you quicker than we could have apparated to the manor, so we looked for a way to null any further bonds Draco could've been coerced into and went and bonded ourselves according to the ancient rites.'</p>
<p>Lucius paused mid-sip, looking at her with grudging respect but also a fair bit of apprehension. 'Wasn't that a bit extreme?'</p>
<p><br/>
'We were desperate,' she shrugged. 'Looking back on Narcissa's actions, I  believe we were correct in being over cautious, though there is no such thing as a suitable degree of caution anyway.'</p>
<p>Narcissa stood up, fury etched  onto her pale face and mouth twisted unattractively. Her chair made a spectacularly abhorrent scraping noise as she righted herself. 'I will not have this-- the<em> impudence</em> of this girl! Tell me, where is Astoria? What did you do with her? I should've known you would've stolen my boy like the Mudblood thief you are!'</p>
<p>Immediately her tirade stopped as she found herself on the receiving end of a wand. Not, as you would've expected from the brassy woman in front of her, but a cold prickly point of magic right at the nape of her neck.</p>
<p>There was no other explanation for this. </p>
<p>'Draco?' she whispered, her voice catching in shock. Her boy, her baby! </p>
<p>'Do stop your vile mutterings,' Draco said in an even voice as he stepped around her, keeping his wand trained  at her head. 'That is my wife you're slandering. Was it not enough for you to murder her?'</p>
<p>'I--,' she stopped.</p>
<p>Hermione lounged back in her seat, unforgivable lines set in her posture. Beside her, Lucius stood  up, threw his empty glass at one expensively wallpapered wall, chest heaving as he glared at the woman he had married, and had come to love.</p>
<p>'I told you,' he stepped close to Narcissa as he ground out his rage-filled words, 'I  told you when we were wed that your family's blind posturing would have no place in my home-- that I would seek profitable business above all else, even blood, but you were not only blind in your beliefs but also deaf to my simple entreaties. Now I am to find that you have rendered my son's life behind my back-- what  more could you do to me? How will I fix this mess?'</p>
<p>He pushed himself away from the other three and paced around the suddenly cramped parlor. Was there to be no end to the dead ends his wife had dragged him to? Was there to be no respite for him?</p>
<p>'Mr Malfoy,' Hermione began as she caressed Draco's back, 'there is nothing much for you to fix, sir. I and Draco have taken care of most loose ends.'</p>
<p>Stopping, he whirled around. His fury was palpable, and she and Draco actually shared a worried glance before resolving to bring the whole matter to light. </p>
<p>'Explain.'</p>
<p>She sneered at Narcissa as she crossed by the tense woman to speak to her husband. 'As you surmised, we were discovered by Narcissa and promptly cursed and obliviated-- in my case, and simply obliviated-- in Draco's. The curse was a slow poison, liquid fire as it spread through me and for some time I thought it to be an after effect of Dolohov's hex, but this was much more sinister. She cursed me to die, you see, and she succeeded. I was dead before Voldemort's corpse had cooled and my body was buried somewhere over at Hogwarts, but I had unfinished business.'</p>
<p>'Her soul called to me,' Draco began, looking adoringly at his wife while still keeping his wand at  the ready. 'The year after when I returned for my NEWTs, I felt something touch my soul. It was Hermione, freed from mortal curses in death and shaking our marriage bond. It awoke my memories. I took her from Hogwarts and bound her ghost to me, and we came back to  the manor where she has stayed since then.'</p>
<p>'Where does Astoria come into this?' Lucius asked, and Narcissa looked rather curious in spite of herself as she reviewed her own experiences with the girl who she though to be her daughter-in-law, but whose marriage with Draco had never been consummated and had scarcely tied them together; she came to  see several anomalies as she remembered particular instances. Instances, where she was sure the girl had been laughing at her in her own mind. Surely that had been Hermione.</p>
<p>It was Draco who answered this weighted query. 'I told her the truth.'</p>
<p>A beat of silence. Then--</p>
<p>'What?' Narcissa asked, suitably confused.</p>
<p>'I told her the truth,' Draco  repeated, 'but she was cut from the same cloth of blind tradition and hatred that you are, and she threatened to expose my relationship to the media. When she saw that I was unbothered by that, she went after you, mother.'</p>
<p>Lucius chanced a look at Narcissa, a decidedly haughty colour to his face as if to say: I told you that she was unsuitable. That was actually all he had said to Narcissa to make her reconsider Draco's potential bride when they had initially been discussing it, some two or so years ago. He fervently wished he had tried harder to discredit his wife from the younger Greengrass chit, but then again, this present scenario of uncloaking past mysteries might not have come about the same way.</p>
<p>'Do you want to know happened then?' Hermione piped up, excited. Her eyes, for surely they were no longer Astoria's eyes were lit up with a manic gleam that had Lucius' heart beating in panic. He had seen such wild spirit in very few individuals in his life, and all of them had wrecked more havoc in his life than he could handle.</p>
<p>He wondered what Hermione would think if he told her that she reminded him eerily of the Dark Lord.</p>
<p>Draco looked down at her, tilting her face up as he captured her lips in a reassuring kiss, disregarding his parents who looked at each other in shameful regret. Regret, that would go unvoiced even in its enormity.</p>
<p>'We killed her,' she informed them gravely. 'I stole her soul from this dimension and shoved  her beyond the veil, post which I occupied this body. It is a construct of Draco's love for me and Astoria's unwilling sacrifice, but now it is wholly mine. Then we confunded Daphne and her family who think Astoria died due to her blood curse. We might reveal ourselves to the media in time.'</p>
<p>As she shared another  moment with his son, burrowing into his chest for comfort after her show of ruthless gaiety, he could make out the spirally curls emerging from beneath the glamour. She gained a few inches of height and her jaw reshaped, the mould of her body reverting to its original form.</p>
<p>'Would you apologize, or shall I?' Lucius asked his wife in a low voice. Narcissa looked at him with angry but resigned eyes, the deep blue swimming with unshed tears of frustration, but set her jaw. He sighed, and looked to his son and daughter-in-law.</p>
<p>What met him was an empty room and a bouquet of white flowers. He picked up the bunch, spying a card in the petals.</p>
<p>Narcissa removed it and read out loud, </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>'We know you were compelled to be obedient. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>We forgive you. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Draco and Hermione Malfoy.'</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Lucius felt his throat seize up as he was forced to reconsider the situation. Narcissa had tears rolling down her moon pale cheeks.</p>
<p>She met his gaze hesitantly.</p>
<p>'I wouldn't have cursed them apart,' was all she offered.</p>
<p>'I believe that,' he responded.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><br/>
In late summer and by a lake most Great, in the shadow of an ancient castle, stood a hill with graves. </p>
<p>Beside one particular headstone stood a well-dressed but solemn couple, the man clutching at the woman from behind with his arms tight around her waist. His head rested in the curve of her neck, and hers was tilted down as they both reveled in the feeling of completion that swept through them.</p>
<p>'We have achieved oneness in this life,' Draco mumbled as  he inhaled the heady scent of his wife's hair. It was an unchanged mixture that he had smelled in his Amortentia and which had confirmed what he had known since his fifth year. When in their sixth they had performed the ancient marriage ritual in the Forbidden forest by only the moon's guiding light and the sounds of the night, they had felt similarly connected.</p>
<p>'It is not over yet,' Hermione said, hope in her voice and an unburdened languidness to her body. 'We have a whole family to build, and to repair.'</p>
<p>Draco's hands cradled her still flat stomach over her satiny dress, searching for the future bump that would soon appear. Love filled his heart as he remembered their years; sometimes together when on Samhain she gained corporeality, and sometimes apart when the veil was too thick. She was never really gone from his side, though, and now she never would. He would depart with her, he was sure of that.</p>
<p>'Yes, we do.'</p>
<p> </p>
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